Enbridge announced plans to optimise a previously announced expansion of its Regional Oil Sands System. The optimisation, which has been agreed to with affected shippers, will involve capital cost savings of USD 0.4B in aggregate and lower tolls for the shippers, while maintaining attractive returns on the capital to be invested.
Projects involved in the optimisation include the Athabasca Twin Project and the Wood Buffalo Extension Project. Following the optimisation and finalisation of scope and definitive cost estimates for the projects, Enbridge’s commercially secured expansion investments on its Regional Oil Sands System, in-service from 2014 to 2017, will total USD 5.6B. By 2017, Enbridge will connect 11 oil sands projects to regional hubs in Edmonton and Hardisty, Alberta.
Photo courtesy of Roth and Ramberg Photography
“We continually work closely with our customers to ensure we’re meeting their market access needs through safe, reliable transportation solutions offered at the lowest practical cost”, said Guy Jarvis, President, Liquids Pipelines. “By combining the Wood Buffalo Extension Project and the Athabasca Pipeline Twin, we will be able to deliver significant toll savings to our shippers while meeting all our contractual commitments to them. At the same time, optimisation of the projects is a more efficient use of capital for Enbridge and preserves attractive returns.”